31 December 2006
28 December 2006
Sackler Crossing Kew
It was good to visit Kew Gardens on boxing day - nice to get out after the excesses of Christmas.
Landscape architect William Kent (1658-1748) was responsible for some of the earliest follies found at Kew and felt that objects and buildings should be “stumbled upon as if by accident”. Landscape designer ‘Capability’ Brown (1716-1783) expressed a preference for undulating curves and for what he called the “sinuous line of Grace”.
The new Sackler Crossing (2006) embraces the ideas of both Kent and Brown, a modern "chanced upon" folly, and a "serpentine curve" spanning the lake.
My pictures don't do it justice but it really is worth a visit, a beautiful sinuous structure of black granite "deckboards" and bronze balustrades.